Trump decries "unfairness" of tax system; "admits" to being beneficiary

Tuesday, October 04, 2016 - 01:24

Republican presidential nominee Trump decries ''unfairness'' of tax system as he tell supporters in Colorado, ''Despite being a very big beneficiary, I must admit.'' Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

▲ Hide Transcript

▶ View Transcript

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
STORY: Republican presidential nominee nominee Donald Trump decries the "unfairness" of tax system as he tell supporters in Loveland, Colorado, "You have heard me talking about it, despite being a very big beneficiary, I must admit."
A scathing New York Times report Sunday showed Trump taking an almost $1 billion loss in 1995 that may have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years.
"George Soros declared $1.5 billion, he declared $1.5 billion in losses in six months, and in 2014 Warren Buffett lost $873 million dollars, I wonder if they deducted that," Trump asked.
"The news media is now obsessed with an alleged filing from the 1990s, at the end of one of the most brutal economic downturns in our countries' history, the conditions facing real estate developers in the early 90s were almost as bad as the Great Depression in 1929, and far worse than the Great Recession in 2008," he said.
The U.S. presidential race tightened in a number of traditional battleground states, though Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton remained the favorite to win the White House, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project poll released on Monday.
The project, which uses a national online opinion poll of more than 15,000 people, showed that, as of Thursday, Clinton and Republican rival Trump were running nearly even in support in Florida and Ohio: states where she had held an advantage. Arizona, where Trump had held an advantage, was also considered a toss-up.
Meanwhile, Maine, Oregon and Pennsylvania were considered states that Clinton would likely win. They had previously been considered toss-ups.
Overall, the project showed that Clinton continued to hold the advantage over Trump in the Electoral College, the body that ultimately picks the president.
If the U.S. presidential election were held today, Clinton would lead Trump 246 to 180 in the Electoral College, and had an 88 percent chance of gaining the 270 electoral votes needed to become the U.S. chief executive.
A separate Reuters/Ipsos online poll showed that a majority of Americans felt that Clinton won last week's presidential debate. Over the past several weeks, the Democrat had maintained a lead of 4 to 5 percentage points in support over Trump among likely voters.